Dread Mummy (CR +3)

Cradled in the scorching sands beneath the relentless sun lie the tombs of kings and pharaohs. But those interred within these structures do not always rest quietly—some rise from their sarcophagi and crypts to walk the land as mummies. A few, known as dread mummies, become kings among the undead. These lords of death learn to command their fellows and visit destruction upon those who dare to stir their wrath.

A dread mummy's flesh atrophies after death, allowing its skin to shrink tightly against its bones. Although not all dread mummies are wrapped in funerary cloth, many are.

Creating a Dread Mummy

“Dread Mummy” is an acquired template that can be added to any living corporeal creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature). A dread mummy uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Greater Despair (Su)

Any creature within 100 feet of a dread mummy must succeed on a Fortitude save or be paralyzed by fear for 1d4 rounds. Once a creature recovers from the paralyzation effect, it remains staggered for 1 additional round. Whether or not the save is successful, that creature cannot be affected again by the same mummy's despair ability for 24 hours. This is a paralysis and mind-affectingfear effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Attacks: A dread mummy gains a primary slam attack if it has no other natural attacks. The damage for this attack depends on the base creature's size, as if the base creature was two size categories larger.

Breath of Death (Su)

Once every 1d4 rounds, a dread mummy can breathe a 30-foot cone of tomb gas, sand, and dust. Each living creature in the area must succeed a Fortitude save or gain 1d4 negative levels. A creature killed by a dread mummy's breath of death ability rises as a juju zombie or dread zombie in 1d4 rounds. A zombie created in this manner is under the command of its creator (as command undead spell) and remains so until either it or the creator is destroyed.

Create Spawn (Su)

Any creature killed by a dread mummy's mummy rot ability turns to dust and blows away on the wind. If the dread mummy that infected the creature with the disease is not destroyed within 1 week, the dust reforms a new dread mummy. A dread mummy created in this manner is under the command of its creator (as the dominate monster spell) and remains so until either it or the creator is destroyed.

Different Mummies

By altering a few aspects of this template, a GM can easily create a dread mummy for a different environment. Make the special abilities of the dread mummy reflective of the new environment. For example, a bog dread mummy's breath of death attack could be a torrent of putrid bog water. Further, switch the dread mummy's spell-like abilities for different ones of the same or lower spell level as appropriate for the environment. For example, a bog dread mummy might be able to use control water while a dread mummy created on the frozen peak of a mountain might be able to use cone of cold.